


About Roses And A Little Ink

by irislullaby



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gift Fic, Holiday Fic Exchange, M/M, One Shot, light mention of drug use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 21:25:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5513810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irislullaby/pseuds/irislullaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It always rains just before autumn starts to come and turns everything into shades of brown and red. It always rains because, like my grandma used to say, sometimes you need to see a little grey to get to see real colors. Because the summer is all bright and yellow and sometimes the sun blinds our eyes and we don’t get to see the true beauty of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	About Roses And A Little Ink

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roniyeh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roniyeh/gifts).



> Hi Roniyeh!!! I'm your Secret Santa Gifter!!! Thank you so much for the amazing promts you gave me in your requests! I had so much fun with them but as you can see, I chose to play a little with Modern day: tattoo artist!Jean, flower shop owner!Marco.
> 
> I'm really really sorry for my English, I had the amazing help of Poppy, Linsday and Lu to polish this for you, so I really hope that you enjoy it as much as I had fun writing this!

It always rains just before autumn starts to come and turns everything into shades of brown and red. It always rains because, like my grandma used to say, sometimes you need to see a little grey to get to see the real colors. Because the summer is all bright and yellow and sometimes the sun blinds our eyes and we don’t get to see the true beauty of the world.

Yeah, maybe my grandma was a little bit of a dreamer if I’m allowed to call her that. But that was the only thought that kept me at bay from tearing my hair out after a long morning shift at the tattoo shop. Long after picky customers sat down for three full hours and I had to act like I cared about their problems, because now that there were tons of TV shows about tattoos, people thought that tattoo artists were the new kind of psychologists. So sometimes I was trying both to focus on the tattoo I was drawing and not spoiling it when a really noisy kid with green bright eyes nearly screamed at me because I wasn’t paying attention to whatever he had been saying while I traced an old looking key on his chest (something about how he lost the real one when his dad passed away a few years back or something).

But it was raining outside, and my only getaway from the almost empty shop was walking over two streets to the bus stop. What a wonderful time for my bike to break, huh?

So I was there, watching the rain crash against the cold glass of the front window, but also making fun with my workmate Ymir of the poor unfortunate souls that stood outside in the cold street and couldn’t wait to the rain to stop to reach their destinations.

“Oi, brats,” my boss, Levi, walked out of the back room, just as Ymir cackled at the sight of a truck literally showering a pair of lovers kissing on the sidewalk, “I need you to take this take out to Hanji, they won’t leave the shop until they have finished a wedding order.”

Both Ymir and I looked at each other while considering the order that was given to us. Hanji was Levi’s roommate, some crazy person who owned the flower shop just across the street. And that meant that one of us would have to cross the street in this awful weather and pray we didn’t land on the same future those two lovers had just suffered.

“Don’t fight over who does it,” Levi said sarcastically as he put the package on the counter, already retreating into his office.

Since he was the one to schedule our appointments and he, as he says,  _ has been tattooing for a long fucking time I don’t have to put up with stupid brats whining over their stupid lives _ , usually took care about the shop’s financials and nothing else, except to ruin a really fun time when his employees were procrastinating, just like now. But hey, at least there weren’t clients who could call us on laughing at someone else’s disgraces, just Reiner with a really hardcore grandma who wanted a new tattoo with the name of her new grandchild.

Once the office door was closed again, the shop was met with silence, only interrupted by the faint noise of a tattoo machine in the back room and the constant sound of water against glass, reminding us why we haven’t said a word.

“Maybe…” I said, scratching my chin, looking directly at the package of food and then back to the flower shop across the wet and flooded street, “Maybe we can tell Reiner that Levi specifically called him out to do that.”

I looked back at Ymir, hoping she would agree with me. Instead she just rolled her eyes and walked to the counter.

“C’mon, Kirschtein.” She said, then walked to the wardrobe where she took her jacket and an old umbrella Levi kept there (weird if you ask me, since I was pretty sure the poor thing couldn’t even stay open for more than two seconds in a windy day, and Levi kind of hates useless things). “You won’t grow a second head if you go in there from time to time, y’know?”

“What?” I asked, taken aback. “That’s not why I don’t want to go in there.”

“Keep telling yourself that,  _ macho man _ ,” she said with a smile, popping her jacket collar, “I was about to leave any minute anyway. Krista must have finished her shift by now too.”

Oh, Krista, Ymir’s girlfriend who also happens to work in the same flower shop across the street. A really petite blond girl with wonderful blue eyes and a charming smile, capable of making you buy a whole bucket of roses you don’t even need for the sake of not making her look disappointed.

I still didn’t understand how a girl like Ymir, covered in tattoos and piercings (she has two massive expanders on each ear, which she continued to work on, and a Mike Tyson-style face tattoo, so you get what I’m saying) could end up with sweet florist Krista.

I mean, I know I also get looks for my style, but I’m pretty sure I will never end up with someone like Krista. At least not even in my wildest dreams. Sign me up for rude bikers and heavy tattooed guys and you’ll have me eating from your hand.

“Go on then,” I told her, trying not to look too upset for leaving me behind bored and alone on this awful day, “Don’t forget you have an appointment with Mr. Smith at 5 o’clock.”

“Levi will kill me if I don’t treat his fuck boy like royalty,” Ymir waved her hand as she opened the door and opened the old umbrella, “Don’t tell him I said that, though.”

“I’ll think about that,” I smirked, watching as Ymir gave me the finger before venturing into the drizzle.

Again the shop was filled with silence and rain, missing the noise of the tattoo machine, which only meant Reiner must have finished with Mrs. Pixis and was making the final adjustments to her tattoo before we were free  until the 4:30 appointmen t .

Mrs. Pixis was one hell of a woman, if I’m allowed to call an 80-something years old woman like that. If I remember correctly, one time, she wanted a rose covered in thorns on her lower back and I had the wonderful luck of drawing it. She and her husband all around the country with only a bike, a backpack and a good amount of pot when they were young, and she usually paid us a visit regularly when one of her sons or daughters announced a new baby coming it’s way and then again when the baby finally got its name. Which, considering the Pixises got like seven or eight kids thanks to the “ _ Make love not war _ ” phase, the grandkids were pretty frequent.

“Remember to moisturize that tattoo pretty often, Mrs. Pixis,” came Reiner’s low, loud voice, just as a petite and wrinkled woman came out of his room with a bright, sweet smile.

“Oh, sure I will sweetheart,” came Mrs. Pixis’ shrilly voice, getting out her purse and walking right up to me, while I registered in the computer her payment and scheduling a new appointment for some minor ink details. “Maybe I can convince Dot to put some lotion on my back, if you know what I mean.”

For someone who doesn’t really know Mrs. Pixis, you might say she’d be bluffing, just making fun of a particular situation considering her age, but once you really know her, you know she means what she says.

“Just remember, Mrs. Pixis,” I told her while handing her receipt, “if anything happens I can’t guarantee you that an actual kid will be coming out this time.”

“I know, I know,” she said with a smile, not bothered at all by my comment. “I’ll be delivering grandkids instead by this point.”

“Stay in touch, Mrs. Pixis,” Reiner waved behind me, “and tell us when little Rose finally gets to meet this world.”

“I will!” she said, opening her umbrella before leaving the shop. “Keep rocking, sweeties.”

And with that, Reiner and I finally got to settle in our places. Reiner managed somehow to fit himself in the little chair where Connie and Sasha usually stood as the cashier, both of the off already for lunchtime like it was a war scream. That’s when I turned again to the street, nothing to distract me from my miserable wait for the rain to stop, when I saw him.

He wasn’t outstanding in the picture. He was just there, right on the other sidewalk, taking refuge from the rain under the sunshade from Zoe’s Flower Shop. I would have ventured to guess he was also waiting for the rain to stop.

There is something you always notice about a person when you see them for the first time. Some people notice eyes, other the hands. Me? I do someone else’s arms. There’s something about the arms that attract me. It means people are dedicated with their work out, so they are also dedicated with other stuff. And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t love to be trapped between those muscular arms on a cold night? Even if I didn’t have Levi’s eagle eye, I could see how prominent his biceps and triceps where while he moved his arms over the flowers in the outside stack of the shop. Really nice tanned arms, if you asked me.

“Where’s Ymir?” Reiner didn’t bother to lift his arm over his face, finally noticing the quiet in the room.

I tore my eyes from the nice arms on the other sidewalk to look dreamily at Reiner, trying to get my brain to process the question that had been directed at me.

“Oh, she left already,” I said with a sigh, remembering why I was still in the shop. “Levi wanted her to take a take out for Hanji and she said something about Krista.”

“I see, that’s why it smells like pasta here,” Reiner finally moved his arm, sniffing into the air before standing up again. “Well, I should go get Bertl too, he said his cousin finally arrived and he wants to show him around.”

Bertholdt Fubar was Reiner’s boyfriend, and also one of Hanji’s workers at the shop. There was an inside joke about how if you inked at the Survey Tattoo Shop you needed to date someone from the shop across the street. Just as Ymir dated cute and tiny Krista, Reiner dated Bertl, a monumental shy guy who happens to have the largest collection of tattoos on his back. I’ll proudly say I’ve contributed with one or two, but he doesn’t let anyone to touch his skin other than Reiner. After all, that’s how those two met each other. (You’ll be surprised to know it was Bertholdt who ventured into the shop and asked the blond in the tank on a date after scheduling an appointment)

“Wanna come with us?” once again, my bored mind had gone wandering over a useless track of information. “Maybe we could get some lunch too.”

“Uh, no thanks,” although it could be a nice lift to my apartment since Reiner drove a monster truck, but I didn’t know Bertl’s cousin and I wasn’t planning on playing third wheel with them, “I guess I’ll just stay here in case Levi needs something.”

Reiner just blinked up at me, a little taken aback from my quick response, “Didn’t know you were so obliging,” he then took his jacket from the receiver. “Your loss then, we’ll have fun without you anyways.”

“Yeah, sure,” I took out my phone with a smirk just as Reiner walked to the door and ready to have the shop in dead silence, which is why I never expected for him to start laughing like a maniac out of nothing.

“Oh my God, you have to be kidding me!” he said after taking a breath, still looking through the window.

I put my phone down and walked slowly behind Reiner, not knowing what would I find out when I looked over his shoulder.

“Are you alright?” Reiner was wiping a tear out of his eye, just as he shook his head. I looked into the direction he was seeing, just finding cute guy with strong arms talking animatedly with Ymir and Krista, leaving the shop. Aside from that, there wasn’t anything unusual out in the street, no bus wetting a poor passer-by, and no person fighting the force of the wind. 

I looked up at Reiner, who was still giggling at the scene on the other sidewalk.

“You know the guy?” I asked Reiner, still trying to figure out what had made him laugh like a husky seal, and failing miserably.

“Yeah, that’s Marco, Bertl’s cousin?” Reiner took a deep breathe to calm his voice. “Seems like Bertholdt managed to get him a job after all. You know what that means, huh?”

I gave him a dirty look while I moved away from his pointy elbow damaging my ribs. I knew what he was implying and  _ no _ **_._ ** There was no way I’ll end up with a florist like all my pathetic coworkers here. Rude bikers, remember?

“You sure you don’t want to come?” Reiner  _ finally  _ opened the door, letting the cold wind fill the lobby. “The food offer still stands.”

“And freeze my balls to death? No thanks, I’m fine,” I shivered and rolled my eyes when Reiner tried one more time with those damned puppy eyes. “Just go already!”

With that, Reiner laughed once more and closed the door behind him, leaving everything in relative quiet. I pulled out my phone again, opening it at the Tetris game I’ve playing after my last client was done and wondering what I could do now that I was alone. Maybe I could go to the nearest mall and eat a Chick-fil-A wrap for the sake of feeding my stomach.

That seemed like a plan. I stood up and took my jacket, looking outside through the window and wishing the rain would at least slow down a little and avoid getting bone wet while I did my trip to the mall.

But just as I was checking the window, I finally understood why Reiner had laughed like that.

Just across the street, under the ugly green sunshade of Zoe’s Flowers, there was Marco, nice tanned arms and Bertholdt’s cousin, watering some flowers just outside  _ while it was raining _ . 

I had to fight the urge of laughing out loud. Firstly because Levi would probably think I’m fucking crazy for laughing all by myself like a madman (which wouldn’t be the first time, to be honest… the madman thing, not the laughing by myself) but also because in that exact same moment Marco decided to look up from the flowers, look around the neighborhood just like it was a fucking sunny day and he was about to say hi to his friendly neighbor walking his dog.

But instead of that, he only found me, looking outside the window directly at him watering some over-flooded flowers on the sidewalk.

And in that exact same moment, just when he raised his hand and waved at me with a really bright smile as if we had known each other for our entire lives, I understood what my grandma used to say over rainy days.

You really need to see a little rain in order to know true autumn colors.

OOO

The very first time I talked to Marco wasn’t until two weeks later. 

Although it wasn’t like I was counting the days since the first time I saw him.

I just remembered because it was the first day since the awful rain that the autumn wind had stopped blowing like it had no tomorrow, that was why Hanji had removed all the flowers from the sidewalk, therefore no Marco had appeared on the outside of the store to water the flowers.

Reiner had told me (after he, Bertl and Marco had left shortly after my  _ grandma revelation _ for lunch) that Marco had decided to move temporarily from Jinae to Trost while he still decided if he could afford move over a bigger city like Sina. So he was living with Bertl and helping him a little financially as Hanji was amazed with Marco’s charm to treat people.

I pretended to hear him like I wasn’t really paying attention to it, but it made me think about Hanji mentioning something like Marco’s  _ charm _ , since all he had to do to me was smile and wave and now all I could think about was  _ why? _

Why would he smiled and beamed like that to a total stranger like me? Was he really that kind of cheery, positive vibe person? Were all people from Jinae like that? Well, considering that Bertl was from there too it couldn’t be a Jinae thing, right? So  _ why _ was he so happy to see  _ me _ ?

It had been really bothering me since that day. Although it wasn’t the real reason why I couldn’t sleep sometimes at night. The thought happened to appear those times just because… 

Anyways. It was a really boring Tuesday. Reiner had his schedule full and Ymir seemed like she would take a lifetime to finish a massive tattoo. Connie had reported sick with the flu and I was pretty sure I’ve seen Sasha playing solitaire on the computer. As for me, I was free until the six o’clock appointment.

I decided to clean my tools to kill some time and be a little bit productive in case Levi decided to show up at the shop and leave Sasha to deal with his bad mood.

As if it was THAT easy.

Just as Levi came through the door we could sense the change of atmosphere from chill to  _ heads-will-roll _ mode.

“Fucking stupid market people,” he said, leaving some heavy bags on the counter, making Sasha stand in her feet and running to put their content on its place, “All they have to do is scan the merchandise, then put the fucking merchandise  _ in _ the bags. Is it that hard to do?” 

Then he turned to me, and I saw all my life run across my eyes. It wasn’t a really nice life, I had to do something about it…

“Kirschtein,” I stood up so fast my machine nearly landed on my chair, saving my ass from letting it fall on the floor, “Go and ask Hanji for some floor cleaner.”

“O-oh?” I wasn’t really thinking when my mouth decided to make that sound, so of course Levi saw me like I’ve grown a second head and it was filled with flies.

“Didn’t I make myself clear?” as incredible as it seems, for Levi to be a short person can be really intimidating and also walk real fast to stand just under my nose, still scary as fuck, “Go out, cross the street, enter the shop and ask for some damn floor cleaner. Maybe you can work in a trash can but unlike you, some of us want this place as impeccable as it can be.”

I gulped a little, eyeing my work place and maybe flinching when I noticed that, in fact, I haven’t cleaned this place in a while, “S-sure,” I tried to force a smile, and even before he had another chance to call out my mess, I slipped from under his glance and ran out the shop.

It didn’t took me long before I reached the other sidewalk and opened the door like I was the one working there, but it took me a little longer to finally process the fact that a) I’ve seen Hanji leaving the store an hour ago and didn't see them come back, b) I didn’t know the store that well to find the storage room and grab the floor cleaner by myself without bothering anyone, and c) A very happy and attentive (and attractive) guy whose name happened to be Marco was just behind the cashier attending a nervous teen with a bunch of flowers on the counter, while there was no sign of Krista or Bertl.

Feigning as much causality as I could muster in a brief panic attack, I managed to hide behind a stand of some white little flowers that impregnate my nose with a strong and overpowering smell. Wrinkling my nose, I looked down at them, wondering how those small white things could be so nauseously powerful.

And maybe being in a friendly place like a flower shop where usually main customers were tiny grandmas and nervous teenagers trying to impress girls wasn’t a good idea to start questioning why flowers were so smelly, because when I looked up from the stand, there was a little wrinkled lady looking at me like I’ve just stolen all the cookies she had baked for her grandkids.

It might have been the piercings and my tattooed arm, but I didn’t have time to ask when the lady turned her head away from me and walked away with her nose up high, as if the smell of roses and white flowers weren’t strong enough at her height level to sniff even more.

That, or she was trying to dismiss me with her pointy nose.

I shrugged and turn around to keep an eye at the cashier, trying to figure out how to approach him and ask him for those god damned cleaning products.

To my surprise, no cashier and nervous teen were found behind the counter. That was my perfect chance to try and find the storage room and get out as soon as possible without being seen. It still bothered me that I didn’t manage to catch a single word of both of them when they finish the purchase…

“Can I help you with something?” came a sudden, warm voice on my right, making me jump in my place and nearly knocking down the stand with all those flowers.

There are things that some people notice second as they pass the first impression stage of looking at hands and eyes. Some people notice hair, others notice teeth. Me, I was hit, only that very moment, by the most admirable work of art a person could have on their skin.

Bunches of freckles all over tanned skin, each one unique in size and color and place. All over cheeks, over neck and collarbones, and, by the sight of the freckles all over those damned strong arms, there were freckles too under that pink polo shirt.

I gulped after the initial shock, noticing Marco right next to me while I tried to keep the flower stand upright and trying to play casual.

“Uh, yeah-I mean, no, I’m… I’m fine,” I put my arm over the stand and lay over it a little, what I didn’t count was on Marco smirking a little while biting his lower lip.

Number three in the list of stuff I notice in other people. He had really nice teeth too, all white and contrasting against his full and soft looking lip. I wondered if they tasted as good as they seemed to be…

“You’re Jean, aren’t you?” I was abruptly removed from my thoughts and from Marco’s lips at the mention of my name, which clearly came from those very same lips, “You work with Reiner across the street.”

“Yeah?” it sounded more as a question than an affirmation, wondering how the hell he knew my name. Maybe Reiner had mentioned me somewhere in their conversations. He better had been talking good shit about me.

“Oh, it’s finally nice to meet you,” and as if we were old friends after not seeing us for a long time, he then approach me and  _ oh god was this heaven _ he suddenly took me in his arms and gave me a bear hug, “Reiner has told me so much about you.”

Forget Reiner, he must had been talking about the really good shit and he wasn’t joking around when he mentioned me here and there with Marco, I was going to build him an altar.

Fourth thing you MUST notice when you meet a person: their smell. It’s a basic consideration once you get to someone real close to interact with. And believe me, I get close to many people from my liking, tattooing stinky people that, thank god, I just have to see just a few times and never smell them again.

But Marco smelled of roses, lilies and aftershave, which flooded over my head and made it light. It wasn’t as strong and piercing as the white flowers, but they were there, in the background, and it didn’t smell that bad.

I must have let myself get intoxicated in Marco’s smell because next thing I knew, I was nuzzling my nose against his neck, and that was when Marco finally took a step back.

“Oh, sorry,” Marco giggled a little, still holding me by my shoulders, and if I wasn’t that inebriated in my own thoughts, I could have noticed a little blush in his cheeks, “I must think I’m crazy, but I just feel like I know all of you guys over there since Reiner always talk about you guys and it happened to Ymir as well, and well, she’s not a very emotional person, so I really do hope I haven’t scared you for life. But do you need any help? I’m Marco by the way.”

He then let me go and extended his hand, which I dumbly took, noticing how firm his hands were.

“Hi, I… um, I just work at the tattoo shop.”

Nice work Kirschtein, you have made a fool of yourself.

But Marco just laughed a little and beamed like I was the most fascinating thing in the world.

“Yeah, I can see that,” he pointed at my arm, hiding his own arms behind his back, “Are you looking for flowers?”

“Uh, no,” I scratched my neck, trying to remember why I was there in the first place, “Levi sent me to ask Hanji for some floor cleaner, do you happen to have some?”

With that, I could notice how Marco’s smile faltered a little before he composed himself, standing a little more tall, making more obvious our height differences.

“Oh, sure,” he turned around and started walking, but he stopped at the end of the aisle to look at me over his shoulder, “You should come with me though, I need a little help to get it,” I raised an eyebrow at that, didn’t they have stairs? “Besides, that old lady over there seems to be calling the cops anytime if I leave you all by your own.”

I looked at where he was faintly pointing, near the entrance of the shop, where the same cookie lady was looking at us suspiciously, as if Marco’s hug didn’t let her know that I was no threat to the store.

“Good idea.”

Marco opened a door at the back of the shop, hidden by a huge stand of bouquets, and I understood then why he needed help. 

I was sure Levi would die looking at this place, it was a large hall with high stands with cleaning products, and by the look of it the storage was as long as the store was. I was so absorbed contemplating what Levi would call a cleaning sanctuary that I didn’t notice Marco approaching with a little stairs at the middle of the hall.

“Here,” he said, smiling at me, and I could notice dimples I hadn’t before, “Can you help me here? This is the only stairs we have and since the floor clears are at the back, I’ll need you to keep them in place, yeah?”

I gulped. Oh, how I had a hard time gulping. Because that meant I could come close to Marco again, and not just to his neck again, but to his back part and I was  _ so doomed _ .

“Sure.”

I’ll like to say I walked the hall as smooth as John Travolta trying to flirt with Olivia Newton in that last scene of Grease. Instead, I must have looked like a poor malfunctioning robot for the looks of Marco, who couldn’t stop looking at me like I was a little kid trying to show his parents the very first time he wrote his name.

But once I was in place and Marco stood on the stairs, I noticed one last detail that made my blood go hot.

Just as Marco was reaching the top stand and stretching his arm that made his pink polo lift a little, I could see what seemed to be a little but  _ so damn sexy  _  tattoo in his lower back.

I gulped once more.

Oh I was  _ so _ doomed.

OOO

Looking back at it, I didn’t know why I was so nervous crossing the street.

Still, I guess it had to do with the fact that Ymir, Reiner, Connie, Sasha, and I was pretty sure Levi too, were plastered against the front glass of the shop, trying to get a better look of what I was about to do.

But I mean, he was pretty obvious, wasn’t he? He once came to the shop, saying that Hanji had sent him to give Levi a presentation card he had left at their shop and that Levi seemed to need it urgently. I mean, Hanji could have called and give Levi the number if it was urgent, right?

He had startled me while I was doing the lines of a new tattoo over a brunette girl that looked suspiciously like the one who had ended up wet by a truck that first day I noticed Marco. He had said my calligraphy was amazing, and stood up close over my shoulder why I tried to control the shakes of my hand.

Since then, Marco had come to the shop more often and with poor excuses, to which both Ymir and Reiner had given me the look. I tried to ignore it, since Marco seemed pretty chill with everyone else, but one time, after he had left the shop, Reiner came to me over my chair.

“He seems to have a thing for you, y’know?”

“Yeah?” I asked, trying to keep my blush on bay, which was a really hard thing to do, so I kept my eyes on my machine, as if it was the first time I took one of those in my hands, “You know that for sure?”

“No.” I could have groaned at that. Not knowing was killing me, “But Bertl says that too. And he knows him better than any of us. Besides, he  _ is _ really obvious.”

“Yeah, well,” I said standing up and avoiding more unnecessary hopes, “Sometimes we misunderstood kindness for interest.”

So maybe that was why I was so nervous as I crossed the door of the Flower Shop, greeted by a really busy Marco at the cashier, who just waved at me, that warm smile on his lips, and went back to the customer he was attending.

I could see Krista and Bertl at the back of the shop; they also waved at me and then looked back at Marco. Krista seemed to understand why I was here, because she smiled and turned back at Bertl to catch his attention. Bertholdt had to bend more than thirty degrees for Krista to whisper on his ear, and at that, he looked up at me and shared a shy smile.

I walked up to the same aisle I got lost the very first time I talked to him, looking over the flowers to see if Marco had finished with the only thing that got between the inevitable.

Five minutes later, that client was leaving with a really nice bouquet Marco had made by himself. And it took him less than 30 seconds to join me at the aisle, and Krista and Bertholdt had already disappeared from the shop, probably to give me a little room to breathe.

“Hi!” Marco beamed, dimples in his cheeks.

“Hi,” I cleared my voice and looked at some flowers in front of me. I needed to get my ideas in order.

“Can I help you with something?”

That was our game. Every time we came to each other’s store, we would great with a simple hi and a stupid question like  _ can I help you with something _ .

I could feel my cheeks burn under his eyes, his pretty chocolate brown eyes. So I took a breath and closed my eyes. It was now or never.

“Yeah, actually,” I turned to him, and he must have taken aback by my seriousness, because he tilted his head like a puppy, “I was looking for some flowers that could say: would you go out with me?”

Marco blinked confused again, but his usual customer smile appeared in his lips, ready to give a polite answer.

“I guess I can look up for…”

He stopped there. Maybe it was my raised eyebrow. Maybe it was his brain connecting the implications of what have I said. Or maybe it was the realization of how lame my technique has been.

Still, Marco’s smile shone brighter than the sun, not that plastic and used smile he gave to everyone else. I was wondering if he would start jumping in his place out of excitement, but then he stopped and looked a little confused.

“Wait… I’m taking it right… right?” he looked so cute when he was confused, I could kiss him, “You’re asking me out? Right?”

“Well,” I said, shrugging one shoulder, “Do I really need the flowers?”

And well, I didn’t have to ask for a best first kiss that the one Marco gave me out of excitement (and which I’m pretty sure everybody at the Tattoo Shop was celebrating) just after the rain in autumn, to help my eyes adjust from the blind colors of the summer, surrounded by the faint smell of roses, lilies and a little ink.


End file.
